Abstract
Introduction: The extensive availability of the internet has led to the recognition of problematic internet use (so-called internet addiction—IA) mostly concerning adolescents. Aim: Here, we present a study focusing on the prevalence and risk factors of internet addiction in Hungarian high school students, using a questionnaire-based survey. Results: Overall, 3000 paper-based questionnaires were successfully delivered and 2540 responses were received (response rate of 84.6%). A total of 1309 males (mean age 17.6 ± 1.43 years) (51.5%) and 1231 females (mean age 17.5 ± 1.4 years) (48.5%) took part in our study. Internet addiction was detected in 486 (19.1%) students (232 males, mean age 17.6 ± 1.35 years, and 254 females, mean age 17.34 ± 1.37 years) based on the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire. In a multivariate analysis, age (age of 17, OR = 3.688, p < 0.001), family status (living without parents) (OR = 2.091, p = 0.034), the size of the household (more than five people per household) (OR = 2.546, p = 0.026), spending more than 6 h online (OR = 5.457, p < 0.001), and daily time interval (OR = 84.316, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with internet addiction. Alcohol use (OR = 10.341, p = 0.001), drug intake (OR = 6.689, p = 0.001) and musculoskeletal disorders (OR = 3.966, p = 0.047) were also strongly associated with IA. Conclusion: A significant proportion of our students suffered from IA, which is associated with substance intake (possible abuse) and musculoskeletal pain in the multivariate analysis. Our study also draws attention to the preventable risk factors of IA, such as working hours or nighttime internet use, number of hours spent online and family surroundings.
Highlights
The extensive availability of the internet has led to the recognition of problematic internet use mostly concerning adolescents
Since in this study we focused on the global psychological consequences of internet addiction, we used the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) total score in statistical analyses, which was computed by summing the scores on all the items of the scale
About one fifth of our high school students suffered from internet addiction, which is significantly higher than the estimated overall pooled prevalence of
Summary
The extensive availability of the internet has led to the recognition of problematic internet use (so-called internet addiction—IA) mostly concerning adolescents. Internet addiction was detected in 486 (19.1%) students (232 males, mean age 17.6 ± 1.35 years, and 254 females, mean age 17.34 ± 1.37 years) based on the Problematic. Problematic internet use is usually defined as the problematic, compulsive use of the internet, resulting in significant impairment in an individual’s function in various life domains over a prolonged period of time It is an umbrella term rather than a single diagnosis (as it includes pathological gaming, online porn addiction, social media addiction, etc.), but the result is the same: problematic internet users are unable to control their online activities to such an extent that it has a negative effect on their lives [1].
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